Places

Entries Tagged as 'Spain'

One of my favorite aspects of a residency is the community that develops among the artists living and working there. At Can Serrat, everyone ate dinner together every night around 8 in the evening outside under the grape arbor. Being Catalonia, the dinners lasted for many hours and included copious wine and cafe con leche and laughter, and often ended up with Spanish guitar accompanying Norwegian folk songs, with the occasional crossover hit like “Just a Gigalo” thrown in for good measure.

The artists talked about their day’s work, their explorations into Barcelona or the mountains, what they were reading or had read that influenced them, and what was happening in the art scenes in their homes. I filled pages of my notebook with recommendations of new artists, vibrant new cities to explore (Oslo, Santiago, St. Petersburg), new books to read. One late night, everyone brought down their iPods and introduced each other to music we might not have heard before.

We’re back in LA after working in Spain for the last four weeks on our next project, which will debut in January 2007. It’s in the can, but we’re continuing to work on it — the benefit of video installation over live performance installation: time to hone.

This month is another busy one for us as we prepare to establish a new studio in St. Louis, where I have taken a position at Webster University. We’re excited to make the transition to a city that’s got such a thriving and innovative art scene: St. Louis is the new black.